Measure to fight trafficking online gets to key threshold

A Senate bill that would allow trafficking victims to sue web platforms that facilitate the crime now has support from 60 lawmakers, a filibuster-proof number in the chamber. Its authors are asking the full body to vote on the proposal urgently.

Why it matters: The bill weakens the law that shields services like Google and Facebook from legal liability for things their users post. Those companies supported a modified version of the proposal.

Yes, but: A proposal has advanced in the House that anti-trafficking advocates don't support — but tech does — which complicates the fate of the Senate bill.

Protesters gather north of Lafayette Square near the White House during a demonstration against racism and police brutality, in Washington, D.C. on Saturday evening. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AFP via Getty Images

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have been rallying in cities across the U.S. and around the world to protest the killing of George Floyd. Huge crowds assembled in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago for full-day events on Saturday.